I run stock steel crank Clevit bearings, Eagle rods, Ross piston's (all balanced locally), Ultradyne soild cam 620. Hughes roller rockers 1.6.
Bulldog aluminum heads (Hughes, same as ez Indy's)
My motor has 1000's of passes, and only been freshened twice. Both times everything was fine, just ringed it, and new oil pump for safety. I always replace the retainers and keepers with cranes, just for safety (I broke a retainer once, cheap titanium ones, but didn't drop a valve) so I went to Crane steel ones, never had a problem again.
Motors been in 3 cars, went 9's in the light one for years, mid 10's in the 2 heavy ones for years.I 've won tons of races.
Grunt the motor, shift @ 6200, cross @ 6500-6700.
My friend had a 440 source head break like womanator, they did replace it, he sent them back, got his money back, and bought Edelbrock heads.In my opinion, most the heads are O.K. it' s the junk hardware...Read valves springs and retainers that are the issue.Two of my buddies drag race Pro Comps (excuse me), but both dropped valves,hogged them out, then put good hardware in them, now they work good.
Even my razoo (according to Hughes) had crappy springs & retainers, we re-did them.